The planned capital in the jungle — Belize's Maya heartland and the world's second barrier reef
Belmopan is the capital of Belize and one of the world's smallest capital cities — a planned government town of 20,000 people built from scratch in 1970 after Hurricane Hattie destroyed Belize City. It sits in the jungle centre of the country, ringed by Maya ruins, the Mountain Pine Ridge Forest Reserve, and the Actun Tunichil Muknal cave system where Maya skeletal remains still lie in crystal-encrusted chambers, untouched for a thousand years. The Belize Barrier Reef (UNESCO World Heritage) is two hours east, the Great Blue Hole is offshore, and the Western Highway connecting Belmopan to Bel…
Belize (then British Honduras) had its capital at Belize City on the coast until 1961, when Hurricane Hattie hit the city with a 4-metre storm surge, killing over 400 people and destroying 75% of the urban area. The British colonial government decided to build a new inland capital, choosing a site near the Belize River at the geographic centre of the country. Belmopan was designed with wide government boulevards and official buildings modelled loosely on Maya architecture; it officially became the capital in 1970 but remained a ghost town for decades while most of the population refused to mo…